(KAIR)--Atchison has a new street sweeper hard at work keeping city streets clean and now, it has a detailed schedule in place.

City Public Works and Utilities Director Justin Pregont says the need for the new sweeper was identified last fall, and the schedule is part of a promise made to city residents when the machine was purchased “in order to create more of a public awareness about what sort of time line and a schedule we are on, just for sort of accountability, and also to establish a level of service expectation with the public. We wanted to design a schedule so people would know where the sweeper was going to be, approximately what times, just so they can know what to expect. If you can create that expectation, it helps to create an improved sense of accountability.”

Pregont says the sweeper's schedule is based off the city's trash collection schedule. “Tuesday trash day for the sweeper is zone one, and that happens the first week of the month. Wednesdays is zone two, and that happens the second week of the month. Thursday trash day is zone three, and that happens the third week of the month. Friday trash day is zone four, and that happens the fourth week of the month. There is enough of a buffer time built in there that we try to sweep downtown a couple times a month and still leave enough time available to get stuff prepared for special events.”

Pregont says he is very satisfied with the new sweeper as it does a much cleaner job and gets through the work significantly faster than the old machine.